Paladins.. truthfully I haven't played this game in a long, long time. That however doesn't mean I don't keep up with what the game's doing. Paladins is a hero shooter akin to the likes of TF2 and Overwatch. There's many characters you can play as, some weaker while others stronger. The main draw of Paladins is the deck building. Every character has like 20 cards (I could be wrong about the number). About 5 designated to all abilities except the ultimate. They modify numbers, cooldowns even your base health, movements speed etc. It allows for self expression and leaning into a playstyle you love even more.

Monetization wise, Paladins has microtransactions for cosmetics. From Profile Avatars, to sprays, death effects and announcers, to skins. Speaking of skins, this is a double edged sword I'd say. On one hand, the skins are amazing for the most part, some even having unique voice lines for characters and such. On the other hand though, it can mess up the artstyle of the game a lot. There's this giant turtle with an anchor and a cannonball, scary stuff really. His voice pierces your ears and sounds all-mighty. Only for the devs to turn him into a cute plushie with cute voicelines. See what I mean? It doesn't really bother me all that much but I know some people who do care about this sorta stuff.

Gameplay is exactly what you'd expect from a hero shooter that's heavily inspired by OW. Though, back in the day this was the free alternative before ActivisionBlizzard made the game F2P. There's four roles in the game. Support, Damage, Tank and Flank. Most of these roles are self explanatory, but what's Flank got different than Damage? To get a grasp of the role, I'd describe flanks as damage dealers with high movement abilities. They're able to zip around the map faster and easier compared to your average damage dealer. They have lower health than any other role. When playing flank you sorta have to know the map routes and stuff like that. You're supposed to well, flank the enemies. Duh.

Performance is not great... even on very modern computers this game is a nightmare to run. It crashes randomly, has the most bugs out of the three hero shooters, and the servers are just downright horrible after they had to downgrade a long time ago. I will also say the game looks VERY VERY bad on low graphic settings. Like, incredibly horrible. Thought that was important to add.

So if I had this many issues with the game, why would I STILL recommend the game to anyone that's stumbling across my review? Well, because I believe in the heart of Paladins. The highs are so incredibly high, but the lows are rock bottom... so, what are you waiting for? Try this game out for a few hours, see if you like it or not.